Jose Aldo
Jose "Scarface" Aldo is the former, two-time UFC featherweight champion as well as the former interim UFC featherweight champion. He was the first UFC featherweight champion. He was the last WEC featherweight champion. From WEC to UFC: One Belt Is The Other He won the title from Mike Brown via knockout and then defended it against former champion Urijah Faber via shockingly dominant unanimous decision, utilizing leg kicks throughout the fight to suck the life out of the always game Faber. Aldo most recently defended his title for the second time against top contender and UFC veteran Manny Gamburyan. The first round was uneventful but dominant for Aldo and in the second, he dropped Gamburyan with an uppercut and finished him with punches on the mat for a decisive TKO victory. Aldo declined a fight in the UFC at lightweight against contender Kenny Florian and afterwards seemed to confirm that Mark Hominick was next in line for a shot at his WEC featherweight title title. That fight would take place in January, tentatively. History: First UFC Featherweight Champion In October, Dana White announced that in January, the WEC would merge with the UFC and Jose Aldo would be the inaugural featherweight champion, also making his UFC debut and defending his belt against Hominick. Instead, Aldo was switched to defend his UFC featherweight title against Josh Grispi in both of their debuts in the promotion. Aldo was injured a little over a month before the debut was scheduled and the fight was delayed. He was replaced by Dustin Poirier. After recovering, Aldo made both his UFC debut and his first defense as UFC featherweight champion against Mark Hominick. He defeated Hominick via a hard-fought and bloody unanimous decision. Aldo next defended his title against former lightweight contender Kenny Florian, defeating Florian via a close unanimous decision. Aldo was next rumored to defend his title against undefeated contender Chad Mendes. He was also rumored to compete in a catchweight superfight against the highly-touted UFC lightweight champion Frank Edgar. Aldo ended up signing to defend his own title against Mendes in Aldo's native country of Brazil. Aldo knocked Mendes out with a beautifully timed knee with one second left in the first round. Instantly following the victory, Aldo sprinted out of the Octagon into the raving Brazilian crowd celebrating with them openly as security tried to pursue him in vain. It was unlike anything seen in the UFC or MMA to date. Aldo had arrived as the best fighter in mixed martial arts, pound for pound. The fight was Mendes's first loss. Aldo next signed to defend his UFC featherweight title for the fourth time against Erik Koch. Before the bout was set to occur however, Koch was injured. Former UFC lightweight champion Frank Edgar stepped in to make his featherweight debut to fight Aldo for the UFC featherweight title in February 2013. Aldo would again be attempting to make his fourth title defense. Aldo did defend the title scraping by with a very controversial unanimous decision over the fellow P4P king in Edgar. The fight earned FIght of the Night honors. Afterwards, number-two lightweight contender Anthony Pettis called out Aldo. Waiting in the wings were also Chang Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas. Aldo was confirmed to be defending his title for the fifth time against former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in August 2013. The fight would take place in the capital of Aldo's home coutnry of Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, a rather large venue for the UFC. Aldo initially turned Pettis down after a few weeks of contemplation but accepted the fight after a round of tense negotiations with UFC president Dana White: the new prize for a successful defense for Aldo was a title shot against the winner of the UFC lightweight title unification fight between Ben Henderson and Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez. The catch, however, was that Dana White told Aldo: "If he goes to lightweight, he stays there." He would have to vacate the featherweight championship. Pettis was unfortunately injured a month or two before the fight was set to take place. He was replaced by Chang Sung Jung. Aldo defeated Jung via a fourth round technical knockout after Jung suffered a separated shoulder in a punching exchange and could not continue. Aldo unfortunately also suffered a fractured foot in his fifth title defense and would be out for the rest of 2013. Meanwhile, a long list of contenders including Ricardo Lamas, Frank Edgar, Chad Mendes and Cub Swanson waited in the shadows. In late October 2013 Aldo signed to defend his belt against the tough Ricardo Lamas in February 2014 about a year after the Edgar fight. He dominated Lamas with leg kicks en route to a unanimous decision. After a significant layoff Aldo next signed to defend his title in a rematch against Chad Mendes. The fight was a back-and-forth war this time with Aldo coming out victorious via a controversial unanimous decision; the fight was laden with other controversies in fact. Losing the Belt Aldo next signed to defend his belt against extremely hyped Irish star Conor McGregor. He was injured and replaced by Mendes. After recovering Aldo signed again to defend the belt against McGregor, losing via a thirteen second knockout. It was Aldo's first loss in ten years and his second overall. Aldo spent the next several months with impotent rants against McGregor before finally signing to fight a rematch against Frank Edgar for an interim title. Meanwhile McGregor was playing touchbutt at welterweight, two weight classes above featherweight where he was supposed to be the defending champion. In any case the interim title rematch between Edgar and Aldo was a close and tactical chess match with Aldo ultimately coming out victorious with a unanimous decision. UFC president Dana White stated firmly that whether McGregor won or lost his irrelevant rematch with Nate Diaz at 170 pounds, he would be forced to defend his title in a unification rematch with Aldo next. The Champ Again: A Ridiculous Runaround McGregor instead next signed to fight lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and Aldo threatened to retire from the sport, stating he didn't care so much about winning back his title from McGregor as he did about avenging the defeat. He also believed he deserved that big money fight after going undefeated for ten years and losing on a fluke thirteen second loss. No one with half a brain about MMA history would disagree that an Aldo-McGregor rematch would have been the most intriguing fight in featherweight history since the first fight. Nevertheless, after several tense months (during which McGregor knocked out Alvarez and made history as the first fighter to 'simultaneously' hold belts in two weight classes), fate struck. An injury cancellation in a pay-per-view main event forced the 'contender' bout between long-time contender Max Holloway and former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis to be bumped up to the main event, now for the 'interim title.' A day or two later McGregor officially announced that he had vacated the featherweight title and Aldo was now officially the undisputed UFC featherweight champion again - small recompense for the bitter and often ridiculous months of waiting. Aldo would next unify his 'undisputed' title with Max Holloway, unfortunately losing via third round TKO after a fairly competitive fight. Aldo was next set to rebound with a rematch against Ricardo Lamas, but instead his old rival Frank Edgar - who was set to be Holloway's first title defense - was injured and Aldo stepped in to replace him in a rematch against Holloway. Holloway defeated Aldo again via a much more dominant TKO. After the Title Aldo took a little bit of time off before expressing interest in fighting contender Jeremy Stephens. Aldo defeated Stephens via TKO after hurting him with a punch to the body. He then fought Renato Moicano TKOing Moicano in the second round. He then faced Alexander Volkanovski losing via unanimous decision. Move Down To Bantamweight Aldo next announced he would move down to 135 pounds and called out the 'champ champ' there, Henry Cejudo. Fights *Jose Aldo vs. Mario Bigola - The fight was Aldo's MMA debut. *Jose Aldo vs. Aritano Barbosa *Jose Aldo vs. Anderson Silverio *Jose Aldo vs. Micky Young *Luciano Azevedo vs. Jose Aldo - The fight was Aldo's first and thus far his only mixed martial arts loss. *Jose Aldo vs. Thiago Minu *Jose Aldo vs. Shoji Maruyama - The fight, for Pancrase, was Aldo's final fight before entering the WEC. *Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Brookins - The fight was the WEC debut of Jonathan Brookins. *Jose Aldo vs. Cub Swanson - The fight was a knockout due to a double flying knee followed by punches eight seconds into the fight. *Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber - The fight was for the WEC featherweight title with Aldo defending. It was one of the most brutal displays of leg kicks in mixed martial arts up to that point. It was Urijah Faber's last fight at featherweight before dropping to bantamweight. *Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick - The fight was for the UFC featherweight title with Jose Aldo defending. It was also Aldo's UFC debut. *Jose Aldo vs. Kenny Florian - The fight was for the UFC featherweight title with Aldo defending. Future UFC Hall of Famer Kenny Florian retired after the fight. *Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes - The fight was for the UFC featherweight title with Aldo defending. Chad Mendes came into the fight undefeated. It was his first loss. *Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes 2 - The fight was for the UFC featherweight championship with Aldo defending. *Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo - The fight was to unify the UFC featherweight title held by Jose Aldo and the ... interim UFC featherweight title held by Conor McGregor. *Jose Aldo vs. Frank Edgar 2 - The fight was for the UFC interim featherweight title. *Max Holloway vs. Jose Aldo 1 - The fight was to unify Aldo's "undisputed" title with the "interim" title of Max Holloway. Category:Featherweight fighters Category:UFC featherweight champions